MASOCHISM is a painting series depicting different variations of pain. The skinned figure portrays the subject in constant agony, but it is not physical pain that they feel; rather, an unbearable emotional pain.

The term Masochism comes from Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, a 19th-century Austrian writer whose novels featured characters who gained pleasure from being dominated, beaten, or treated cruelly. Similarly, Marius Black expresses the pain that he felt from failed relationships and suffering from abuse to the point of briefly becoming a masochist himself at one point and turning his pain into paintings, even being able to see other people’s suffering and using them as inspiration in his later work.

He is also inspired by Dr. Gunther Von Hagen’s Body Worlds Exhibition, where the doctor displays real human and animal skinned bodies revealing their inner organs preserved through his technique called plastination. This, along with his fondness for looking at the acetate see-through pages of Encyclopedias and anatomy books as a child, led Marius to create his first art series.

A total of 166+ artworks, painted and drawn from 2004-present by Marius Black.